We went back home and helped Tom finish everything. Alejandra and I packed our bags to sleep over at Victoria’s. It was the only way Tom would be okay during the night. Even when Julian offered for me to stay at his house, in the guest room, he said no. I laughed when he suggested I stayed at Victoria’s. I missed staying there. Just an hour before mom got home, we said goodbye to our future stepfather as we were about to leave. We wished him good luck making sure he had everything.
“Hey girls!” I smiled when I saw Victoria open her door. “Come in! Welcome to La Casa de Victoria.”
“What did she say?” I looked down at Ale chuckling. She wasn’t that good at Spanish.
“She said Welcome to Victoria’s House.” My sister nodded as we followed Victoria to her room. Her parents were out but they let us stay anyways. We weren’t ones to make a mess around the house.
“What do you girls want to do?” I shrugged as I sat down on her bed.
“Can we watch a movie?” Tori and I exchanged looks with before looking at Ale.
“We can have a princess marathon.” The little girl in front of us began to cheer like a kid on Christmas Eve.
Throughout our Disney Princess marathon, we got to watch The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and The Beast. Alejandra fell asleep half way through Snow White. She had a long day. We had woken up early to clean the house like mom ordered us to and we helped Tom get everything ready. She was tired.
“So Tom will be asking your mom to marry him?” I nodded. I had just told Victoria about Tom wanting to ask mom to marry him.
“He should’ve asked her by now.” Tori and I smiled at the same time while laughing. “I hope she said yes.”
“She should say yes. She deserves it Calli.” I nodded. As I was about to answer, my phone began ringing. “Dios mio! Julian stop calling!”
“Shh.” I grabbed my phone from the desk in the corner. It was some weird number. I shrugged and slid my finger across the screen as I stepped out of Victoria’s bedroom.
“Hello?”
“Uh, hi Calli. It’s Austin.”
“Who?”
“Austin. Austin Mahone.”
“Austin?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
“You said to call you in the letter you sent?”
“I did?”
“It says that right here.”
“Oh. Hi.”
“Hi. How are you doing?”
“Fine, I guess. You?”
“I’m fine. I’m getting better every day.”
“That’s great.”
“Yeah. I haven’t forgotten about you though.”
“You haven’t?”
“Why would I want to?”
“Maybe you would like to go back to your old life?”
“Maybe I don’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“Everything was easier back when I was with you.”
“It wouldn’t be.”
“Why not?”
“You deserve your old life.”
“It feels weird being back. I feel like I don’t know anyone.”
“But you do. You know your mom, Alex, your friends.”
“You’re different from all of them.”
“I am. They’ve been in your life the longest. They know you better than I do. I only knew you for a short time and I,”
“It doesn’t matter. You know me better than all of these people. You know I’m scared of Jessica because of what happened. You know how I feel about you.”
“Please stop.”
“Why can’t you understand that I don’t want this so called old life back? I wish I could go back to Texas, to El Paso to be exact. Just to see you one more time.”
“We’re very different from each other Austin. You’re famous and I’m just old me.”
“You mean a lot to me.”
“I don’t. Go back to your old life Austin.”
“Listen to me Calli! You are what keeps me going right now. Just because you think you’re normal doesn’t mean I can’t like you.”
“You can’t like me! Just stop joking around with yourself Austin. Good night!”
I hung up. My mind couldn’t keep processing his words. It felt like being stabbed in the gut. What was I going to do?
18. "You can't like me!"
Start from the beginning
